The Life Coach
by ScarlettPlum
Summary: The gift of a life coach helps Stephanie make some tough choices for the upcoming year and her life.


**Disclaimer: I do not own the world of Stephanie Plum or any of the characters that reside in it.**

**A/N: I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and will have a wonderful New Year!**

* * *

Helen went to the kitchen to refill the tray of little pigs in a blanket she had made upon the request of Mary Alice. She touched the small envelope in her pocket again, wondering what Stephanie's reaction would be. To say she had been surprised when she opened the mail and found the note saying Stephanie had been chosen was an understatement. She had told herself if it was meant to be, Stephanie would be picked, if not she would let it go. It had been several weeks and she hadn't heard anything so she had assumed it wasn't going to happen. After the interview she had been a little weary of Ms. Judith Monroe. Promising lifelong results in just one session seemed a bit unrealistic. Annie had said she was the best though and as her contribution to society, every Christmas she chose one recipient, pro bono. During their interview Helen thought Judith seemed a little odd as did Annie, but who was she to judge. The Plum household screamed odd, so maybe they were the norm? She walked back to the dining room and placed the tray down beside of Mary Alice, receiving a neigh in appreciation. After dinner and presents she would slip it to Stephanie. She even made her favorite cake to soften the blow. She'd slip it in with the cake. She noticed her hand shaking a little as she picked up her glass. She couldn't decide if she was excited or nervous. It seemed like a great honor had been bestowed on them. After careful consideration and several other applications, Judith picked Stephanie. Stephanie's life had the potential to change for the better and she had either gotten her daughter the perfect present or alienated her a little bit more. She watched her family as they sat around the table. Another Christmas Eve just like the past two years. Nothing had changed. She glanced over at Stephanie again and wondered if next year would be any different.

* * *

Stephanie sat down the cake box with her very own Pineapple Upside Down cake, just for her, and bag of presents by the door and rummaged in her bag looking for her keys when she remembered the keys were hanging around her neck on her new Rangers lanyard that Angie and Mary Alice had gotten her for Christmas. Mary Alice had insisted on putting the keys on before she left. She pulled it over her head, the keys tangling in her hair. Yeah, she'd end up hanging herself before it was over with. Maybe she'd just carry it in her purse. Over all it had been a nice Christmas. Her mom kept sneaking glances at her though and when she handed her the cake box and told her to be sure and open it when she got home, she knew something was up. Her mom had gotten her the blue micro fleece sheets she had wanted and a few new towels and wash cloths, but the cake was extra and she sent the entire cake in one of her best cake boxes. Something was definitely up. She took the cake and sat it on the counter. May as well get it over with, she thought as she opened the lid. There on top was an envelope and a note.

_Stephanie, this is just a little something extra. I hope it helps with the New Year. This is just between us. Love, Mom._

Stephanie picked up the envelope underneath with her mother's name and address on the front with no return address. She opened the envelope and read:

_Helen, after much consideration I am pleased to inform you that I have chosen Stephanie for the recipient of my services. Please inform Stephanie that our session will begin promptly at 9:00 AM on December 26__th__. Best regards, Judith Monroe, Life Coach._

"Oh no she didn't," Stephanie muttered as she softly banged her head against the refrigerator. "Why me?"

* * *

Stephanie was up and ready to head out the door promptly at 8:00 AM. She would inform her mother later on in the day that she had a work emergency come up and had to leave early. Life Coach. She couldn't decide if she should be outraged or depressed that her mother felt it necessary. She had explained a few days before Christmas Eve that she and Joe were celebrating with their own families, alone. Actually they had decided not to even exchange gifts. They were sort of in the between stage of back on again which made gifts and family functions uncomfortable. Not that she had ever been comfortable at any function with his family, but still she thought her mom took it well. Looking back maybe a little too well. Come to think of it, she didn't even comment when Val mentioned Albert's male cousin was coming to town for a visit and maybe they could all go out for dinner. She filled up her polka dotted monogrammed insulated coffee cup from Grandma Mazur and grabbed her cell phone, stun gun and lanyard and headed for the door. See she didn't even need a Life Coach; she was organized, and early for work. She opened the door and almost walked into a tall, curly haired woman who was probably fiftyish and dressed in a long, flowing, skirt with an ivory peasant blouse, she was probably not Judith Monroe.

"Good morning Stephanie, I'm Judith Monroe; I believe we have an appointment."

"Actually I have a work emergency and I'm afraid I'll have to cancel."

"No you don't. You thought you would slip out before 9:00 and then make up some silly excuse to your mother. That's why I scheduled for 9:00 when our appointment is right now at 8:00," Judith said looking down at her watch. "Aren't you going to ask me in?"

Stephanie smiled, Judith was good. "Look, I'm sorry you've been inconvenienced, but I'm really not interested in your services. How about I write you a check for our session instead and we forget about this.

"I don't think you understand how fortunate you are to have received my services, which I am doing for free."

_Great, my mom got me a free life coach. How good could she be?_

"Oh, I'm the best there is. You see I have a very unique way of helping my clients. And really Stephanie, you and I both know your check would have bounced. You're barely making ends meet and you are still in an off again on again relationship with one man, while I might add, you were kissing another man just two days ago in the alley beside of Vinnie's. Girl you need me. You are obviously conflicted and need some guidance." Judith pushed on past Stephanie. She turned and said, "By the way Diesel says hello."

"You know Diesel, that's great," Stephanie sighed.

Judith smiled, "Diesel is a colleague."

Stephanie's eyes widened, "Then that means you're a…"

"That's right. Stephanie Plum, it's time to meet your destiny."

The door shut behind Stephanie making her jump.

* * *

"I don't want to."

"What do you mean you don't want to? Stephanie, let me explain this to you again. I don't give you advice, I show you. Do you know how many people would give anything to get to see their futures? I'm showing you, how things turn out. I chose to help you over Stanley Mack, Stephanie. Things have been going downhill for poor Stanley since someone forgot to pick up his birthday cake a few years ago. They forgot his birthday party they had planned for him. Since then he feels like he is being forgotten about. Stanley would love to get to see what he should do in life."

Stephanie continued to look straight ahead at the wall, "It's cheating."

Judith shook her head in disbelief, "Cheating? It's not cheating! I'm sharing my gift with you, and you're going to take it! You took Stanley's birthday cake Stephanie and you gave it to Ranger. Happy food remember, to help his food pyramid? You had just realized you were in love with Ranger, and correct me if I'm wrong, but you still haven't told him. You told Joe, but you can't commit completely, because if you do you'll have to let Ranger go. You aren't worried about the cheating part. You're afraid you'll have to give one of them up."

Stephanie jumped up from the couch, "I'm not afraid! I don't want to do this, so if you'll let yourself out." She walked to her bedroom and closed the door.

A few minutes later she heard a rap on the door. "You don't get a say kiddo; your mom signed the contract. I have to deliver. Just pick the one you can live with Stephanie. I'll make it interesting, four destinies, two are real, and two are not. Choose what you can live with."

Stephanie heard the front door close shut. What did Judith know? Okay sure she seemed to know a lot of personal details, but she wasn't afraid to give one of them up. There had been several different times that she had decided she wouldn't mind being Mrs. Morelli, but then something would happen and they'd be back at an in between phase and come on, Ranger was never a real option. Was he?

Stephanie decided to go on in to the office; nothing good was coming out of lying around thinking about futures. She opened her door and slammed it back shut. She opened it up again and she was standing in front of Joe's mom's house. When Judith says you have no choice, she wasn't kidding.

* * *

Stephanie watched as future Stephanie arrived in a cab in front of the house. It seemed to take her a few minutes to get herself together. She stepped out of the cab and stumbled a little on the sidewalk. Dressed in four inch red peek a boo shoes and her black sundress she headed up the steps with a bag of Christmas presents. Stephanie looked at herself horrified_. _

_There's three inches of snow on the ground! Did I even look outside when I got up this morning? _

She looked at future Stephanie's flushed face. _Am I going through the change?_

Again she stumbled a little up the steps.

_I'm drunk! I can't go in there drunk. _

Sure she usually left tipsy, but this couldn't be good if she started out that way. She realized Joe wasn't around. Maybe he was already here.

_Oh no, please don't let us live here! I bet we take care of Angie and moved in with her. _

She followed Stephanie up the steps and into the Morelli house.

"Merry Christmas!" Stephanie shouted. The other Morelli's were there, looking a little bit older, but pretty much the same. Stephanie reached in her bag and pulled out a large mason jar with water in it. "Enjoy, this is my best batch yet."

"You're going to get Joe in trouble if you keep doing this Stephanie," Angie Morelli muttered.

"I am not. I don't make enough to sell; this is just my own personal supply that I wanted to share with my family since its Christmas. Come on try some it's really good."

"I still don't understand why you're making moonshine Stephanie," Angelina said shaking her head but filling up her glass anyway.

"Because the grape vines didn't do well in the back yard so my wine making was a bust, and after I started making my own beer, I found I enjoy it. Joe encouraged me to get a hobby, so well you know."

_I make alcohol for a hobby?!_ Stephanie screeched and looked at her future self again._ I didn't age well and I'm a lush._

She touched under her eyes wondering when all of the fine lines appeared.

"Where is Joseph?"

Stephanie sighed as she plopped down on the couch, "He got called away on a case a few days ago. I don't why people have to get so violent around the holidays. Joe hasn't been able to have Christmas with us in three years. Anyway little Joey is spending Christmas with his girlfriend's family, so it's just me. I let them borrow my car so I wouldn't have to go pick him up later. She can run him home."

"But Joey is only twelve!" Angie gasped.

"Yes, I think I know how old my kid is Mama Morelli. His girlfriend is sixteen though and she's been driving for a few months now."

_I'm a horrible mother_, Stephanie dropped down on the floor. Sure she knew she didn't have the maternal instincts and feelings Mary Lou and Valerie had, but she thought she'd be better than this.

Grandma Bella appeared through the doorway.

_Dear lord, she's still alive. _

"Grandma Bella, Merry Christmas! Joe had to go out of town, so you can sit beside of me," Stephanie pulled out a chair at the table and sat down patting the spot next to her.

Bella looked at Angie and shook her head no, but Angie motioned her to go sit. Stephanie thought she looked afraid. Bella shuffled along and sat down beside of Stephanie and crossed herself. Stephanie leaned closer and whispered in her ear.

"Don't you be having any of those visions about me today old woman. I'm not going anywhere, so don't start that crap where you see me laying in a casket. Did you know that Angie asked Joe to be the one to help look after you when she has her knee replacement? I'm going to take care of you Grandma Bella. Joe is always at work, so it's just going to be me and you. All day and night."

Bella started crying softly, "Evil, you are evil."

"Aww, I love you too. I'll tell you a secret; I use to be afraid of you, but not anymore. I guess that eye you were always giving me just didn't work," Stephanie said as she leaned over and kissed her cheek.

Stephanie was stunned as she watched as everyone else sat down and started eating. Mooch who was across from her had a silly look on his face and future Stephanie was grinning at him.

"Since Joe's out of town, I was wondering if you could help me out with a few things at the house tonight. My burner on the still won't stay lit. Could you help me light my fire?"

Stephanie looked under the table and noticed future Stephanie's foot was in his lap.

"Ewww. No more, please no more!" She ran out the front door and was relived to be back in her bedroom.

"I become the drinking, running around bad Morelli! Grandma Bella is afraid of me, I'm that scary. No way, no way, no way. That has got to be a fake destiny! I would never and I repeat never have an affair with Mooch!" She turned back and opened the door, gasping as a bullet whizzed past her head. She quickly dropped to the floor of an abandoned building. She looked up and saw herself tied to a chair, three men surrounding her.

_Great so this future me also gets into bad situations…_

"You will give me the information I desire. What has Mr. Manoso done with my money?"

"What money?"

The man slapped her across the face, "The money from my sales you ignorant woman! He's moved it to an off shore account and I want to know where it is!"

"I thought Enrique handled the sales."

"Your information is outdated. Enrique is dead, I killed him myself. Now I handle all the sales to Peru."

"You killed Enrique and sale to Peru. That's all I needed to know."

Before Stephanie knew what was happening the future her kicked the lead man back before jumping up the best she could, while still attached to the chair. Another man rushed towards her, but future Stephanie dropped to the ground, broke most of the chair, and rolled out of the way. She hit the man that had rushed towards her and knocked him out the window. Future Stephanie ran over to another one of the leader's cronies, jumped on his back, and swiftly broke his neck. Then she grabbed the leader by the arm and pulled his own gun to the side of his head.

"Mr. Manoso would like to see you now, if you'll come with me," she lifted her watch up to her face. "You get that guys? Bombshell requesting pick up."

Stephanie closed her mouth as she stumbled out a door to find herself back in her room.

"Okay, that was pretty cool. Except for when I broke that guy's neck that was bad. Definitely liked kickass Steph better than bootlegging Steph. "

Stephanie tried to copy a move and kicked her leg up. "Ow,ow,ow. This is for sure a fake destiny because no way I could ever get my leg that high," she groaned as she rubbed her leg.

* * *

She sat back down on her bed. She had visited the two disturbing fake destinies, so whatever she saw now was real. She felt nauseous and her palms were sweaty. This was it. Judith said pick which one she could live with. What if she couldn't live with either one? Worse yet she was assuming Joe and Ranger were her choices. What if she opened the door and found out that she married Albert's cousin and became a Kloughn? What if she ended up all alone and old living in this very apartment and rode the elevator all day with her thirty hamsters? She glanced back at her fire escape thinking about making a break for it, but she'd never be able to come back without seeing the other two destinies.

She placed her hand on the door knob, took a deep breath and opened the door.

She found herself in Joe's house sitting on the couch watching the Christmas lights blink on the tree. She had a chenille throw wrapped around her and was sipping some hot chocolate. The scene looked peaceful, but she could feel the loneliness. The phone rang and Stephanie reached beside of her without taking her eyes off of the tree lights.

"Hello?"

"Cupcake, I'm going to be awhile. There was a gang shooting down on Stark. I'm not going to be able to make it to your parents or my mom's."

"That's fine; I'm not really in the mood to go anyway. Be careful."

"Steph, I'm sorry. I don't like you being alone on Christmas Eve."

"Not your fault. We may as well get used to it."

"Cupcake, it's not your fault either. It just wasn't meant to be."

"Not meant to be for me. You're fine."

"We'll talk when I get home. Love you Cupcake."

"Love you."

Stephanie watched the future her, confused.

Future Stephanie kept watching the tree lights and quietly said, "The one thing you wanted the most and I can't give it to you. No toys or excited Christmas mornings in this house. Just me and a disappointed, workaholic husband." And then she started to cry.

"I can't have children," Stephanie gasped suddenly understanding. She turned back and saw her door and walked back through. She realized she had tears running down her own face. She didn't know if it was because of future Stephanie's loneliness and pain or the realization she would never be a mom. There would never be a little Joey from her. She didn't really even want children; at least she didn't think she did. She always assumed it was an option though, and knowing she couldn't hurt more then she thought it would. She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. "May as well get it over with," and she walked back through the door before she could chicken out.

She was in a familiar room. Future Stephanie was pacing back and forth muttering to herself, "What am I missing?"

She stopped and went to the kitchen and poured a glass of wine and came back and sat down at the table.

Stephanie could sense aggravation, but she didn't know what was going on. She watched as she went to work on the laptop in front of her, making notes on a yellow pad beside of her. She was looking for someone. She had done this countless times at her apartment. Future Stephanie laughed, "You can run, but you can't hide. I do believe Mr. Johnson you are in Tallahassee." The phone rang and Stephanie went and grabbed it off of the couch where she had laid it earlier.

"Babe."

"I know, you're stuck at the airport, I watched the Weather Channel and figured your flight would be canceled."

"I'm not going to make it in time to go to your parents' house Babe."

"It's okay, I'll go by myself, I don't mind. Guess what though, I found Johnson. I think he's hiding out in Tallahassee. We need to move fast though, so can you set it up and I'll pack your bags and we'll be ready to go tomorrow when you get home."

"You amaze me Babe, you really do. I'll get on it and we'll plan to leave by six o'clock. Love you Babe. I'll make missing Christmas up to you."

"You always do, love you too."

Stephanie watched as she went into the bedroom and started packing.

She looked for tears, but didn't see any. She could sense the excitement in the air though. She was surprised because Ranger missing Christmas seemed like a big deal, but future Stephanie seemed used to it and okay with it.

It seemed like it was over, so she walked back out of the room and she was back in her apartment.

"Man, he's lucky I'm so understanding. Most women would be furious with him," She sat back down on her bed. "I told them both I loved them."

"You do love them both, that hasn't changed." Stephanie jumped hearing Judith's voice. "The question is which life can you live with?"

"I thought the purpose to this was for you to show me which one was best for me."

"You said it was cheating, and I can't make that decision for you."

"You know though right, which one I should be with?"

"You do too."

"I don't want to hurt him."

"If you're not opposed to cheating now, maybe I can show you a couple more things. It might make things a little easier. Close your eyes."

* * *

Stephanie was back in Joe's living room, but the furniture was arranged differently. Joe walked in holding a manila envelope, " Kelly?"

"In the kitchen, making cookies."

"There was a gang shooting down on Stark Street, so I'm going to be tied up for a while."

"Oh Joe, you're going to miss Christmas!"

Stephanie was watching the little girl sitting at the table. "Will Santa still come?"

"Yes Casey, and you can go ahead and open your presents in the morning, but there are two that I wanted mommy and me to give you now."

"You got it?" Kelly sounded hopeful.

"Just came in, and I only have a few minutes and I have to get back, so Casey come here honey."

Casey climbed out of her chair and went over and Joe picked her up and sat her on the counter in front of him, "In this envelope are some papers saying that I can be your daddy, if you want me to. I want to be your daddy very much, and if you want to you can be Casey Morelli now."

"You are my daddy, I want to. I want to be Casey Morelli!"

Joe and Kelly laughed, "We are going to have another Morelli in this house also in a few months. Mommy has a baby brother for you in her belly."

Stephanie broke down crying, "Little Joey,"

She opened her eyes and Judith gave her a hug.

Stephanie wiped her eyes again and Judith handed her a tissue, "Why does it have to hurt so much?"

"Joe would never blame you Stephanie, if you choose him. Actually he will never meet Kelly unless you choose for him too."

"Can we be happy?"

"A person can choose to be happy in any situation."

Stephanie nodded, "You said a couple of things?"

She closed her eyes and found herself facing the ocean. Ranger was sitting beside of her on a huge wrap around porch in gray Adirondack chairs. Ranger reached over and picked up her hand and kissed the rings on her finger, "Tell me."

Stephanie laughed, "I don't know, that is probably the only secret I have. Do you really want to know everything about me?"

Ranger laughed, "Babe, you promised, and yes I want to know every inch of you and every thought you have."

"Well, it started with a gift from my mom…"

* * *

Stephanie opened her eyes.

"What did you feel there Stephanie?"

"Peace, love, happy, a bit of excitement. Not that excitment is unusual; I normally feel that around Ranger."

"Do you know what you need to do now?"

"Yes, I think so, but I have a few more questions first."

* * *

Stephanie pulled in front of Joe's house and waited for him to get home. It had been a long day, and an interesting one. When she saw him pull into the driveway and get out of his SUV, her heart ached a little. This would be the last time she visited him here. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to try to keep her tears back. When she felt a little more composed she opened the door and got out and walked to the front door. Joe was waiting there on her.

"What took you so long, Cupcake?"

Stephanie smiled and shook her head, "Just getting some stuff together."

Joe looked at the paper in her hand.

"Here, this is a gift certificate for a free meal at this great little restaurant I found today."

"Cupcake, I thought we weren't exchanging gifts, now I feel bad because I didn't get you anything."

"This isn't a Christmas gift. It's a friend/ New Year's gift. It's about a forty-five minute drive, but trust me when I say it will be so worth it. They don't actually do gift certificates though, but this really nice waitress there wrote this up for me, and she's going to take really good care of you. She's working tomorrow though, so you need to go then and ask for Kelly. That's her name."

"Cupcake, that's a long way to go for a quick lunch, but thanks for thinking about me."

"No Joe, you have to go. It'll change your life, trust me. My gift from you can be you accepting this gift from me. Please, promise you'll go."

Joe sighed, "I'll do my best. You want to meet me there or ride with me?"

"Neither, this is just for you. I need to get out of here, but when you go there tomorrow, follow your heart. I want you to and I'm fine with it," Stephanie leaned in and gave him a soft kiss. "Bye Joe."

Joe looked at her funny, "You're acting strange Steph, you okay?"

Stephanie smiled, "It's been a strange day, but yeah, I'm good. Things are looking up."

She turned and quickly walked back to her car before she started sobbing uncontrollably. Breaking up was hard to do, but he would get the life she wanted him to have.

* * *

Stephanie noticed her mother wasn't waiting to greet her at the door as she usually did. She climbed out of her car, carrying the cake box. She wasn't surprised to find her mother ironing away in the kitchen. Stephanie cleared her throat and handed her mom the cake box back, "Thank you."

Helen looked at her nervously, "You're not mad?"

"I was, but Judith was very helpful and it probably changed my life. Actually a lot of lives."

Stephanie sat down at the kitchen table, "Joe and I broke up for good this time, but I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't mention it just yet. Judith helped me to see that I wasn't the one for him, and I needed to let him go so he could meet the "One"."

"I'm sorry; I can't say I'm surprised though. I always thought if it was meant to be, it would have happened a long time ago."

"I'm going to be making some changes in my life this year. Please don't try to fix me up with any of your friends newly divorced sons though. I know there is someone out there for me, and someday it's going to happen when the time is right."

Helen nodded in agreement, "Of course there is."

The sound of Grandma Mazur coming in put a stop to their conversation.

"Marge and I went to that new outlet mall and look what I got for seventy-five percent off, with it being after Christmas. Ain't this a pip. A do it yourself brewery. Helen we can learn to make our own beer. Give you something to do besides iron."

"Absolutely not! This is how it starts, some innocent beer making and then next thing you know you're trying to grow a vineyard in the back yard. Then you move on to the harder stuff and you're making a still in the garage. I'll just take this with me. I need to go and see a guy about some exercise," Stephanie said as she jumped up from the table and snatched the brewery kit from her grandma's hands. She stopped in the hallway closet and reached in a bag and grabbed a left over name tag and bow. She grabbed a pen from the hallway table and wrote To: Vinnie, From: Stephanie, Connie, and Lula.

* * *

Stephanie called his cell to make sure he was home.

"Yo."

"Yo, yourself, can I stop by for a few minutes; I need to talk to you about something?"

"See you in ten Babe."

Stephanie shook her head and smiled. Of course the line was dead as soon as he said Babe, but she was surprised he knew how close she was. Judith didn't tell her what to do concerning Ranger, so she wasn't for sure how they actually would reach relationship status, but if they spent more time together, it made sense it would help speed things along. As she rode the elevator up to seven she felt goose bumps on her arms. This would be home someday.

Ranger was waiting for her as soon as she got off of the elevator. She smiled to herself wondering if he really had ESP. _Someday you're going to marry me_, she silently chanted in her head.

When she didn't receive any gasps, curses, or door slamming in her face, she decided his ESP must not be working tonight, "Did you have a nice Christmas?"

"I worked and just got back from Boston."

"You didn't even get to your family's house?"

"Some years I make it, some I don't."

"I didn't even put any decorations. I just went to my parents' house."

Ranger grabbed a couple of Corona's and handed her one.

"So, I was making my New Year's resolutions out and I want to get in better shape, so I was wondering if maybe I could work out with you some?"

Ranger quirked an eyebrow at her.

"I promise I won't whine and complain and I'll even be up at," she stopped and took a deep breath, "Five 0'clock to go running."

Ranger full out smiled. Stephanie glanced down at some pictures on the table. It was the beach scene from the future. She felt her heart rate pick up and she reached forward to pick up the picture hoping her hands weren't shaking. "Wow, that's a gorgeous view. There should be a big wrap around porch on the house, so you can enjoy it."

"No house, just some property I was thinking about buying for an investment."

Stephanie smiled, "Good choice."

She thought she should change the subject before she blurted out how someday they were going to be looking at the view together.

"You know since you didn't get to enjoy Christmas, we should get out of here and go to that Christmas village and walk around and look at the lights and get some hot chocolate. They keep it up until New Year's Day."

"Wish I could Babe, but I need to find this guy before tomorrow," he said as he handed her the file.

Stephanie glanced through it. "Well, maybe I could help you look for him. We could try the village for a few minutes and see if he's there and then we could move on to the strip clubs he usually frequents."

Ranger grinned at her, "You think he'll stop off there first before he goes to the strip clubs?"

"Well, I think after looking at the file it's a good possibility considering his love of hot chocolate."

Ranger laughed, "You got that from his file?"

"Didn't you?"

Ranger shook his head in amusement. "I'll give you thirty minutes at the lights Babe."

"Deal and I'll help keep the strippers away for you if we go to the clubs."

* * *

Stephanie felt strangely content walking beside of Ranger sipping her hot chocolate. It was dark and the lights were beautiful. She had forgotten how much she used to enjoy them. She felt Ranger stiffen and she stopped and followed what he was looking at. Her eyes about bugged out of her head.

"That's the guy in the file that you're looking for," she whispered loudly.

Ranger cut his eyes to her and shook his head, "Babe, how do you do it?"

She didn't answer because she had no idea. She was just teasing him about the file. There was no way to know he would be here. But here he was with a large cup of hot chocolate in his hand. Ranger made a couple of calls and they went to sit on a bench until reinforcements got there.

"How'd you know Steph?"

She started to open her mouth when the future conversation from the beach ran through her mind, "It's kind of a funny story, and someday I'm going to tell you."

Ranger didn't take his eyes off of the skip, but he said, "Not today?"

Stephanie laughed, "Not today." She raised her cup to Ranger and said, "To 2013, may it be the start of wonderful things and a year to remember."

* * *

Judith and Annie stood from a distance watching the scene unfold. Three men dressed in black arrived and Ranger left Stephanie on the bench to assist in the capture. It was very professional and if you weren't watching closely you wouldn't even know what was going on. When it was over Ranger walked back to Stephanie and they continued walking through the village. Ranger draped his arm around her shoulders and kissed the side of her head.

Judith clapped her hands together, and then kissed her fingers and said, "Viola, the masterpiece is complete."

Annie smiled back at her, "So many lives changed. Kelly, Casey, Joe, Stephanie, Ranger, even Helen."

"And don't forget Stanley, he's going to be the one to build Ranger and Stephanie's beach house. That job will turn his life around."

Annie gasped, "Then you did all of this for Stanley, it started with him and that cake."

Judith shook her head, "Oh no, I did this for Ranger. The others were just a bonus the way it all worked out."

"But I don't understand, I thought Ranger was Stephanie's destiny. That's why you helped her."

"It all started a few years ago Annie, I was in a little diner and Ranger walked in. Oh, Annie his heart was practically dead. His thoughts made me so sad I almost left. But then she walked in and it was like you could see little cracks forming in him letting light shine through. She taught him to love. She taught him compassion. She made him better and stronger. Sure Ranger was Stephanie's destiny too, but first she was his. It's very rare one gets to meet their true soul mate. I'm so glad I was able to witness theirs."


End file.
